Uhuru’s Big 4 agenda could be on its deathbed
What you need to know:
- Mr Kenyatta seized the moment at this year’s Jamhuri Day to admit that all was not well with his affordable housing project.
- He might as well gather more courage next year to pronounce the grand Big Four Agenda dead.
To begin with, time is hardly on his side. Mathematically, there are still three years of his second term to go.
It must have taken quite some courage for President Uhuru Kenyatta to concede defeat in the housing fund levy battle with workers and employers.
By relaxing the rules to make contribution to the fund voluntary in his Jamhuri Day speech, the President effectively scaled back, if not gave up, on his ambition to deliver 500,000 affordable homes by the end of his second term in 2022.
GENERAL CYNICISM
Mandatory enforcement of the levy, which would have seen up to Sh5,000 deducted from a worker’s monthly salary – with the employer matching the amount – would have guaranteed the government a steady flow of cash to build a few of those homes.
Going by the dogged opposition to the housing fund and the general cynicism among Kenyans towards similar government schemes, it is highly unlikely that many workers and employers will take a chance on it in whichever form it mutates to next.
An important subtext of the President’s Jamhuri Day concession is that he might be finally coming to terms with the reality that none of his legacy Big Four Agenda goals, including manufacturing, universal healthcare and food security, will be achieved.
To begin with, time is hardly on his side. Mathematically, there are still three years of his second term to go.
LOOTING COFFERS
But the final year will be largely unproductive, with politicians preoccupied with election campaigns and corruption cartels in the civil service exploiting the window to loot public coffers.
Another year could be squandered bickering over the BBI constitutional reforms report at public rallies and funerals and fighting a referendum campaign, which the President, strangely, appears to be keen on.
Time aside, the persistence of myriad policy and leadership challenges would still make it almost impossible to achieve any of the Big Four Agenda goals even in another 100 years.
Manufacturers have yet to enjoy competitive electricity and transport costs despite the heavy public investment in energy infrastructure and the standard gauge railway. They also have cheap counterfeits and high tax demands from the Kenya Revenue Authority to contend with.
Frequent strikes by health workers are consigning the universal healthcare dream to the ICU in places like Kisumu, one of the counties where the programme is currently being piloted.
CRIME SCENE
The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has long been a suspected scene of crime, with two of its former CEOs among the high-profile people charged with theft of public funds.
In a week when reports emerged of dairy farmers in some parts of the country pouring out their milk to protest low prices offered by the processors – including you know who, owned by who – the less said about the food security goal the better.
If Mr Kenyatta seized the moment at this year’s Jamhuri Day to admit that all was not well with his affordable housing project, he might as well gather more courage next year to pronounce the grand Big Four Agenda dead.
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